From: Teresa Douglas [teresadouglas@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 3:08 PM
To: Food and Drug Administration
Subject: Docket # 00N-1396 and #00D-1598
Food and Drug Administration ,
I am extremely concerned that the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) has proposed regulations that still
fail to require labels or safety tests on genetically
engineered (GE) food. Labels on GE foods are required
in Japan, Russia, and throughout Europe, yet your new
proposal continues to deny Americans the right to know what
is in our food.
Labels must be required to protect the public from potential
health effects that could only be traced if GE foods can be
identified, yet FDA?s "voluntary labeling" guidelines will
leave thousands of unlabeled GE foods on our supermarket
shelves. Furthermore, the agency?s proposed rule only
requires companies to notify FDA when bringing GE foods
to market, but it fails to require any safety testing.
Doctors and scientists have warned about the potential for
GE foods to trigger dangerous allergies, change the
nutritional value of foods, and cause irreversible harm to
the environment. FDA appears to be playing politics with
our food, disregarding science-based precautions that other
countries have implemented.
In addition, this practice harms people like me, who have special dietary restrictions. I am a vegetarian, and I do not want to eat animal genes when I bite into a piece of fruit. Not allowing me to live by the dictates of my own conscience is a fundamental violation of the constitution.
I urge you to reconsider this proposal and insure that GE
foods are subject to pre-market testing and labeling.
Americans deserve the same protections as the rest of the
world.
Teresa Douglas
656 Berry Ave.
Hayward, CA 94544
teresadouglas@yahoo.com